Phoenix's transparency not so clear

You are sitting across a table at Starbucks as Phoenix City Manager David Cavazos explains why pay raises never came up during any of the 15 public hearings on the coming year's budget.

The raises and bonuses, he explains, were set in March 2010, when two-year labor contracts were unanimously approved by the City Council. To bring up those raises at this year's public hearings, he says, would send the wrong message.

"It would give the public an idea that this is negotiable, that this is something up for discussion," he said. "This is a contract that can't be changed. None of that's possible. These are contractual obligations that have been fully vetted."

Translation: Because you can't do anything about it, you didn't need to know that the vast majority of the city's employees will collect raises or bonuses next year even as the city touts a 3.2 percent cut to employee pay and benefits.

Such is how transparency works in the city of Phoenix.

Cavazos says getting the various employee groups to agree to a 3.2 percent cut for two years was a "huge concession," something never before done in Phoenix. Those cuts, he says, will save a total of $104 million this year and next - far more than the $67 million the city would have saved had he simply frozen pay.

In figuring the savings, Cavazos is not taking into account the $67 million being spent this year and next as rank-and-file employees continue to either march up the salary steps or collect "longevity" bonuses once they reach the top. Those, he says, are longstanding items separately built into the budget decades ago.

They may be longstanding, but it seems to me they should count. Just as it seems the citizens should count enough to at least fill them in on the fact that the 3.2 percent employee sacrifice wasn't quite as advertised.

Phoenix taxpayers had a right to know long before May 18, when Republic reporter Lynh Bui broke the story that next year's budget includes raises and bonuses totaling $29 million (or closer to $33 million, it now appears). Six days later, the budget was approved.

And so 6,000 of the city's more than 14,000 employees will see raises averaging 4.6 percent in the coming year, on top of this year's 4.6 percent boost. Another 7,500 will get bonuses averaging about the same as last year: $2,200. No one in management will get a boost. They're on their third year of pay cuts.

Cavazos says the City Council knew all along about the raises and bonuses. Both Councilman Sal DiCiccio and former Councilwoman Peggy Neely, who resigned in April to run for mayor, say otherwise.

DiCiccio says the staff waited until after last year's budget vote to disclose the size of this year's pay raises and bonuses. This year, he says he began asking in January how much the city was budgeting for raises and bonuses but didn't get the information until May - the month after the 15 hearings held to brief the public on the budget.

"No one was told anything, and it was purposely done that way," DiCiccio said.

However it was done, it's now done. The city can't change its contracts with employees, nor should it.

Pay raises may not be negotiable at this point, but who sits on the City Council to oversee such things in the future is - or it would be, if Phoenix voters actually, you know, voted.

In case you hadn't heard, the city's elections for mayor and five council seats are Aug. 30.

Cavazos points out that most employees' pay in the coming year will still fall below what it was two years ago, before the concessions.

Put another way, close to half will be making more - nearly 6 percent more on average.

Only in government can you take a 3.2 percent cut in pay and still wind up making more money.